I slept fairly well, although I was interrupted by the village roosters who started crowing in the middle of the night. At the time, I wondered if perhaps the electric lights in the village were messing with them. I can hear them from all over the valley, calling and responding. They were worse than the monkeys on Tonsai, who at least only did their mating calls after the sun had risen.
By the time we got up, the villagers were already at or on their way to their work, I see some of them working their fields, rising motorcycles and overstuffed trucks past, as the mist slowly disperses and the sun lightens further the clouds covering the sky in the mountains here.
Kay, our guide told us last night that this is a village of Hmon - Chinese immigrants who are mainly farmers of cabbage and lychee (I also see papaya trees). None of the fields are flat and all of them look like they take a lot of manual labour to maintain. We also learned that just 10 years ago this village had no electricity. The irrigation systems are all gravity fed, with misters delivering water piped from a large concrete water tank high up.
We walked through more bamboo forests, taking a break at a waterfall and pool, where we lept in and swam for a bit to cool off. There appeared to be a village behind this pool, likely with the residents working in the fields around it. I hope that they're also able to enjoy the beauty of this natural play area as we are.
As we continued to walk, we saw many more settlements, from the simple to the grand.
I also noticed that complete cycle of life in the jungle, like spring, summer, and fall happening all at once. We could see buds turning into flowers, fat seed pods, and falling leaves all at once; a constant cycle of birth, growth, death, decomposition, and rebirth, like some microcosm.
After lunch, we said farewell to half our group, who were finishing their trek today, and we climbed up to our place of rest for tonight. We were greeted by the children, who have been very welcoming everywhere, approaching us with interest.
It's been really neat, getting a chance to get a glimpse of the daily lives of these hard working agricultural communities. We always see and hear industry here, whether it's the sound of construction, or seeing people working in the fields.
This has not been some "human zoo" tour, where we land in a village, they put on a show for us, and we gawk, but there's a full barrier between us and the villagers. No, these people have gone about their daily lives around us, allowing us to glimpse what happens and interact with them.
Today, we walked through the village more, seeing the way of life here, the school built by the Association Angela, a French charity that I may look into for donations after the trip.
The sky is clear tonight, and our bungalow lit only by candles. We played an Australian card game called "Shithead" by candle light (How many miles to Babylon? Three score and ten. can I get there by candle light? Yes, there and back again. If your heals are nimble and light, you will get there by candle light) and now, while most of the others get Thai massages I'm lying on the porch, gazing up at the stars. I can pick out the constellation of Orion, with his head and sword of stars visible. I'm hopeless at identifying other constellations (aside from the dippers), but I gazed at Orion most mornings before school, so I can pretty much always pick him out, if he's in the sky.
No comments:
Post a Comment